Iraq News Now

SAS troops are reportedly on a 'kill or capture' mission to hunt down the world's most wanted man, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. 

There is currently a £20million bounty on Baghdadi, who was presumed dead until new footage of him speaking to followers was released by ISIS in April. 

Retired British Army officer Colonel Richard Kemp has warned Baghdadi 'urgently' needs to be stopped as he continues to inspire and encourage atrocities including the Sri Lanka bombings, which killed eight Britons. 

According to The Mirror, the SAS is said to be on a 'kill or capture' mission, while the RAF has deployed drones armed with Hellfire missiles from RAF Waddington on surveillance missions. 

Some 30 SAS and Special Boat Service are said to be searching for Baghdadi, helped by Iraq's 'Golden Division' special forces.

He is thought to be hiding in the desert of Al Anbar Province, west of Baghdad in Iraq.   

Col Kemp, a former advisor to the government on terrorism, labelled Baghdadi 'one of the most evil men in history'. 

Col Kemp told The Mirror: 'We need to get him urgently to stop his poisonous message encouraging global violence, including savage attacks in Britain like we saw at the Manchester Arena in 2017.'  

Nicknamed 'The Ghost', Baghdadi had not appeared in public since he delivered a sermon at Mosul's famed Al-Nuri mosque in 2014 declaring himself 'caliph'.  

But in April he appeared in a chilling propaganda video, outlining the new path forward for his group and telling followers: 'Widen your reach, connect with far-flung militant groups and exhaust your enemies with a war of attrition.'

In the 40-second video Baghdadi vowed his militants would get revenge on the West for the group's defeat in Iraq and Syria and claimed the Sri Lankan Easter bombings were part of their 'battle of attrition'. 

He could be seen sat in a room with a Kalashnikov assault rifle leaning against the wall behind him. 

Baghdadi is among the few senior IS commanders still at large after two years of steady battlefield losses that saw the self-styled 'caliphate' shrink from an area the size of Britain to a tiny speck in the Euphrates River valley.

Although largely seen as a symbolic figurehead of the global terror network - he was described as 'irrelevant for a long time' by a coalition spokesman in 2017. 

Speaking earlier this month, Iraqi security adviser Hisham al-Hashemi said officials had narrowed Baghdadi's whereabouts from 17 to a possible four locations. 

These include the deserts of Iraq’s western Anbar, Iraq’s Wadi Houran — a riverbed in Anbar or in Syria’s mid-east Homs desert. 

He also cautioned that IS 'will try to rebuild trust among its fighters, will try to launch further operations' like the Sri Lanka April 21 attacks which killed more than 250 people. 

Baghdadi said in his 40-second address in April, titled 'In the Hospitality of the Emir of the Believers', while sitting on a cushion and speaking to three men whose faces have been blurred: 'The battle for Baghouz is over.'

But Baghdadi then added, 'there will be more to come after this battle', saying his group is fighting a 'battle of attrition'.

He blamed the fall of his 'caliphate' on the 'savagery' of Christians towards Muslims and that the battle of Baghouz demonstrated the 'barbarism and brutality' of the West and the 'courage, steadfastness and resilience of the nation of Islam'. 

The special forces mission to find him comes as an investigation revealed ISIS jihadists are using Instagram to recruit new followers and celebrate terror atrocities around the world.

Posts on the social networking sites include photographs of Baghdadi, and images of dead soldiers and beheadings.

They also include threats of terror atrocities on the scale of the Sri Lankan suicide bombings that claimed 253 lives, the Sunday Telegraph reported. 

The posts, uncovered by Eric Feinberg of the Global Intellectual Property Enforcement Centre, also included a child in combat fatigues preparing to behead a prisoner and a baby in a walker below ISIS iconography.